THE CRUNCH
Chinese tech companies have bought more than 1 million Nvidia gaming and workstation GPUs to plug gaps in demand for AI computing power, according to a Financial Times report cited by Tom's Hardware. The buying spree, described by industry insiders, points to continued reliance on U.S. AI hardware even as China's homegrown chip market grows.
Domestic AI chip production in China has reportedly doubled this year, but it still falls short of demand. The report cites a shortfall of nearly 1.5 million chips, with around 3.5 million expected to be manufactured domestically against demand that "far exceeds" 5 million.
To compensate, Chinese firms are said to be buying Nvidia cards that comply with U.S. export controls and repurposing them for AI, mostly the RTX Pro 6000D, RTX Pro 5000 and RTX 5090. These Blackwell chips cannot match Huawei's Ascend 910C and other homegrown flagships, but the report says they are useful for "simpler AI workloads," such as prefilling.
Software matters too: demand for Nvidia's GPUs is reportedly driven in part by its CUDA software ecosystem, which remains more favourable than Huawei's Cann alternative.
The knock-on effect is being felt by gamers. The RTX 5090 has a list price of $1,999, but it can now be found at only three third-party resellers for no less than $7,199 and has all but disappeared from the market, adding pressure to an enthusiast GPU segment where prices have already soared.